Specifically, as long as the Sim doesn’t miss two days of work in a row, you’re safe. If you’re not "rosebud"ding your way to independent wealth, this will make expanding the house/upgrading the goodies proceed at a slower pace, but it’s the easiest way to keep the current job, while still having enough free time to increase skill levels to make that next promotion.
[sub]What’s really sad is that we haven’t had this bloody game installed, let alone played with the thing, since shortly after the second expansion pack was released. Yet still, all this crap resides in my brain.[/sub]
My favorite part about this, is that I played the game obsessively when it was first released, and then didn’t touch it again until after Hot Date (the third expansion pack) was released. When it came out, I bought and installed all three EPs and started over with new families. Of course, within a few minutes a character with no cooking skill decided to make dinner, and started a fire. He died in the fire, and I figured “Okay, I’ve seen that before. Time to reload from my last save and…”
And then the doorbell rang, and the Grim Reaper entered. I had the dead guy’s wife “Plead” with the reaper. After a minute or two of begging, he nodded and they both stood up. They played roshambo, she won, and her husband got brought back to life! That one scene got me hooked on it again, and I’ve been playing it off and on ever since.
I’ve found one fun thing to do is make a family of 5-6 complete sloths: no cooking, no hygiene, no anything. Cheat your way to a goodly amount of money and build and furnish a nice pad. Set the autonomy to highest, and don’t touch them at all except to get one or two of them the first jobs that come along.
Now follow them around with the camera, and document the plunge into disarray, dispair, destitution, and eventual death. I call it my “Real World” simulator.